The Castration Cult
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Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. Welcome. First off, I want to say thank you to whomever you are listening or watching for opening your minds to receive extra knowledge nuggets each week. It means a lot to all of us, and we want you to know that. Also, since you are a premium subscriber, remember that you get priority in topic suggestions. So feel free to shoot those suggestions on over to us by email, or you can write us a handwritten letter, send it to our PO box, which that PO box is located at theoriesofthethirdkind.com.

Click on the contact button and it's right there. And then after you email us or send us that handwritten letter, we'll shove it in Dan's ass since he's feeling better. His voice is back. For the most part, it's back. And he's looking fancy as fuck. Look at him. I'm going to come set your table. Ask what you want to drink. I look like a bum. My house is 47 degrees because my heater's not working. And it's funny what a month ago, mine wasn't working. Yeah. And less than that. It was like two weeks, two weeks ago.

Pretty much right. I got sick like right after I got back turned on. Yeah, somebody's out here fucking up AC systems. Anyway, so feel free to send that suggestion, that episode suggestion on over to us and we'll put it into our episode suggestion list. That's right. But with that being said, today's episode is over Scopsy, the castration cult.

It's a very, very odd episode, and I enjoyed researching it a ton. Because there were penises. No, that's not the case. No. All right. So today's episode, like I said, is about scopsy. And for us to fully understand this episode, we need to discuss a few things. We need to talk about 18th century Russia, what serfs were...

and the system that they were a part of called serfdom. Then we'll transition into an individual who created the cult, the cult itself, and their very odd and strange beliefs and practices and all that good stuff. Of course, after that is strange facts and findings, theories, and wrap it up with our own personal thoughts and theories.

So with that being said, Dan, can you start this off for us? Absolutely. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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Play Chumba Casino today. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. TNCs apply. Ready to level up? Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun. It's free to play with no purchase necessary. Enjoy hundreds of casino-style games like bingo, slots, and solitaire anytime, anywhere with fresh releases every week.

Whether you're at home or on the go, let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you. Plus get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus. Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Play Chumba Casino today. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. TNCs apply. All right. Welcome back. So like Aaron stated, we first have to talk about the 18th century Russia and what the hell serfs are and the system that they were a part of, which was called serfdom.

And so to do that, we're going to Dan and Aaron's history class. So come inside our classroom, sit down and shut up. All right. So I need everyone to close your eyes and picture this. I want you to imagine it's the year 1703. You are fast asleep, but then you are suddenly woken up, not by the annoying alarm of the iPhone, but instead to the sound of a rooster.

You live in a tiny village somewhere in the endless forests and vast land of Russia. As you open your little beady eyes, you notice your home. You live in a izba, which is a log cabin with a dirt floor. So clean. In the middle of this cabin, you have a stove. And that stove is either blazing like the sun or it's stone cold.

The walls of your home are all stained black from decades of smoke. And that's because your bitch ass don't have a chimney. Way to go. Yeah, majority of those homes didn't have a chimney back then. And they were pretty much a luxury. And when you burned wood in your home to cook or to either heat up your little old log cabin, that meant that smoke would fill your home.

So your bitch ass was sniffing up all the carbon dioxide, water, vapors, ash, and even carbon monoxide. Which is what Heron's going to do when he goes home. He's going to start a fire in the middle of his living room. Yeah, because my heater's not working. Help me. All right. So that right there is where you're living. In a tiny carbon monoxide field log cabin in 1703 in the middle of nowhere, Russia. Now, another thing that you should probably know is that you are a serf.

Not the surf as S-U-R-F, like surf on waves, but a surf, S-E-R-F. But what is a surf? Well, a surf was an individual who was bound to the land that they lived on. So back then, surfs were the poorest of the peasant class. The land they lived on was not owned by them, but instead was owned by a lord. And they could not leave that land without their lord's permission.

This meant as a serf, you were essentially tied to the land that you were living on since it was owned by someone else. Hence the name landlord. And that land or village, the land that you're living on, or even the entire village might have been won by a different lord in a card game last Tuesday.

So the landlord ownership was constantly changing for you and your entire village. Who's my boss? Yeah, never know. Now, as a serf, what was your job? Well, you worked and worked some more. And when you're done, maybe some extra work. You don't get a break. You plowed fields, hauled timber, and sweated in a nearby mine. And here's a fun fact. If your landlord fancied a new pair of boots, he could sell you boots.

Not your labor. You. Children included. Merry Christmas. But wait, there's more. So let's say you are a serf. And besides doing all that work on your farm and you also go to your lord's farm and do all of his work, you are also a really good craftsman or a good blacksmith. Now, you would think that extra job that you're really, really good at that you do on the side would give you a little extra spending cash, right? Maybe to go do what you want to do.

Nope. All that extra earnings would be handed over to your lord. Let's say you struck gold. Your lord struck gold, not you. You don't own any of that. Now, if you tried to run away or even leave your village without the permission from your lord, you would either be flogged or exiled to Siberia. Now, Aaron, what's flogged? Whipped. I think that's just like take a club and isn't it? I just thought it was like whipped. Flog me.

I thought it was a club. Oh, I don't know. Either way, you're getting hit. Yeah. And sometimes it's even both get hit, then get exiled or get exiled. And then they follow you there and beat you. One of the ways. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. But let's talk about marriage. Let's say you wanted to get married. Well, you would have to get your Lord's blessing. He could veto your wedding, sell your spouse to another estate, or if he was feeling generous, charge you a love tax for the privilege.

Romance, 18th century style. All right, so let's recap this. It's the 1700s. You are living in a log cabin that's filled with carbon monoxide and you're sucking that shit up, right? The house and the land that you live on is all owned by a lord who takes all of your earnings and pretty much controls your entire life.

Sounds great, huh? Well, it's about to get better. Let's talk about food. So, in your state of depression and misery, what are you eating? Well, for breakfast, you would eat kasha, a porridge so bland that it makes oatmeal weep. Mmm. For lunch, you would eat shachi, a cabbage soup that's been simmering since the time of troubles. For dinner, you would eat more kasha, aka porridge.

And I know you're probably wondering about meat. Well, meat was once in a blue moon treat, unless you counted the occasional squirrel. And potatoes.

Probably wondering, what about potatoes? Taters. Well, Catherine the Great tried to popularize them later in that 18th century, but peasants called them devil's apples and refused to eat them, which we'll get into Catherine the Great a little more later on. But let's talk about something else that ruled over you besides your lord, and that is the church.

So during this period, a church calendar ruled your life. You would pray to icons and fast half the year. And the church at the time wasn't always a refuge. Let's say your lord, aka landlord, was always being a little bitch to you, unfair. Hey, we want more of your crops. We want more of your labor. If not, get off. Well, if you went to the priest and talked about this, the priest would often take the side of the lord. Many of the priest sermons were over obedience, you know, being a divine duty thing.

AKA you better mind your Lord and not bitch about it. Yeah. Now, some other important things to note is that in the 18th century, 90% of Russians were serfs, 90% their labor, the serfs labor bankrolled empires and allowed for Russia to build glittering palaces and

And here's a little knowledge nugget for you. Serfs and their fucked up system of serfdom, it outlived the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and even the invention of the steam engine. It took until 1861 for Alexander II to free them. But with a catch. Serfs had to pay for their own land, shackling them to debt instead of soil. It was freedom, but on layaway.

So that is what a serf was and what your life would have been like in the 18th century Russia. So next time you complain about rent, you can remember, at least your landlord cannot sell your kids. Well...

Maybe. I mean, if he kidnaps him. Yeah. But anyway. All right. Now, before we get into the cult, we need to do a brief history of 18th century Russia and its rulers at the time. And I know it might sound lame, but it's not. And trust me, this plays a pivotal role in our episode today. So pay attention. It's good. All right. So, Dan, start the lesson off for us. All right. So we're going to dive into, you know, short history lesson of 18th century Russia.

which the 18th century kicked off with Peter the Great. He ruled from 1682 until 1725. This guy was a big ass king. Literally, he was huge. The dude was 6'8 and his influence loomed large over the entire century.

Two, six, eight. Damn. Yeah. And Peter, he was obsessed with Western Europe and he would travel there kind of like incognito. He wouldn't tell anybody he was gone. He'd go there secretly. And that's because he would go there to learn about shipbuilding. He would come back to Russia on a mission to make Russia great or at least kind of like less embarrassing to live in at that time.

Now, during this time, many of the nobles began swapping their flowing robes for European britches. No, pants. The peasants continued to wear linen shirts and needling coats that said, I'm poor, but hey, I'm warm. I feel good. And around this time, the King Peter, he began taxing beards. Yeah, beards. If you had a beard, you had to pay up, buddy. Also, if you had rotten teeth and needed them pulled,

Peter would do it himself. I'm dead serious. He had an obsession with teeth and he had a pair of dental pliers and he loved to yank out rotten teeth. And I'm not joking. Now, when you say dental pliers, they're just pretty much pliers. Yeah. Yeah. Fun fact, the first time I had my tooth pulled by a dentist, she used locking pliers. That seems sanitary. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure I saw her get it out of the toolbox. Oh, yum. Yummy.

Yeah, thanks Dr. Bonnie. Now besides building modern boats, influencing wardrobe changes, charging people for having beards and ganking out teeth, Peter also had St. Petersburg built and declared it Russia's new capital in 1712. Now, a little knowledge nugget for you, but thousands of serfs died building St. Petersburg. Not so fun for them, but hey, it's now called the Venice of the North. Worth it, right?

God dang. Another thing that Peter did is that he modernized the army and created a navy. Also, he introduced the table of ranks, which this let commoners climb the social ladder if they serve the state. Now, all these reforms that Peter implemented in Russia came at a cost. Taxes were brutal and the peasants were already living in slave-like conditions.

They carried the weight of the taxes. And this played a role in turning 90% of Russia's population into serfs, like we mentioned earlier. Again, serfs were

Not like they weren't like slaves, but they were close. They were tied to the land. They were owned by the lords who owned the land. And this land could be bought, sold, and they were right there with them. They could be bought, sold, traded, all that good stuff. They were slaves. Yeah, kind of. I mean, if you get traded or sold. Yeah. I mean, you're technically selling a person. Well, history books claims that they weren't. So.

They said they were close to being slaves, but they weren't. They were the lowest of the peasant class. Yeah. It's all about the wording, I guess. All right. So let's go back talking about Peter, though. The big old six foot eight ruler. So in the winter of 1723, Peter, whose overall health was never great, began having problems with his urinary tract and bladder.

In the summer of 1724, a team of doctors performed surgery on him, releasing upwards of four pounds of blocked urine. That's a lot of piss. That is a lot of piss. Oh, my God. His bladder must have been huge. I don't know how he didn't burst. Yeah. Like I thought everyone's always said, like, if you don't go to the bathroom, you hold it in too long, your bladder is going to burst. Yeah. What's going to happen is the urine then back flows up into the kidneys and

Right? That's how it works. Maybe his didn't. Maybe his just kept collecting in his big ass bladder. Four pounds of urine in his bladder. God damn. Maybe he was just born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline. Who knows? Born with four pounds of piss in him. Born with a big old bladder. Yeah. But yeah, Peter remained bedridden until late autumn. And it was in the first week of October.

Restless and certain that he was cured, Peter began a lengthy inspection tour of various projects that were being done around the area. However, only a few months later, in January of 1725,

Peter began having problems again with his urinary tract and bladder. He couldn't piss. He's like, I can't piss. I got all this. He's jumping up down. It was sloshing. He's like, you hear that? It probably did slosh. Well, he was like, you hear that? I need this piss out of me. But.

They couldn't get it out, and he fell unconscious and then died on February 8th, 1725. And believe it or not, they did an autopsy on him. And that autopsy revealed that his bladder was infected with gangrene. Imagine so, with all that piss in it. Just made me think, all that sloshing around. Was he like a waterbed?

Come on and lay on the king's water bed. Baby, it's not about the size of the boat. It's about the motion of the ocean and sloshing in the air. Four pounds of piss is going to help. I wonder if they collected that four pounds of piss and then bottled it and sold it. Come get the king's piss. Come bathe in it. Bathe in the king's piss. It will heal all wounds. Go get the piss boy with his piss bucket. And then they all get gangrene. I mean, piss is supposed to be sterile, right?

I don't know. I don't know. I just know that movie Dodgeball. That's what I'm saying. I don't know. I don't know if it's sterile or not. It's sterile and I like the taste. Oh, Jesus. Oh, man. But yeah. So after that, you know, Peter passed away. Russia had a lot of different rulers, including a few female ones. For example, Peter's wife, Catherine, took over as the ruler of Russia.

Catherine only ruled for two years, though, from 1725 to 1727. And that's because she contracted tuberculosis and passed away. After Catherine, 11-year-old Peter II became emperor over Russia. Now, Peter was a little bitch. Peter II, he was a little bitch.

He did not care about ruling. He abandoned all the responsibilities that the emperor was supposed to do. He even like pulled a bitch move and made it so that serfs couldn't volunteer for the military, which made them escape the life of serfdom. Pretty much if you were born in it, your generations would be born in it too. There's no escaping it. And he made that rule. So pretty much he made, he changed what his dad did so they couldn't climb these stairs

Status ladder. Yep. What a little bitch. Yeah, a little bitch. So needless to say, he wasn't well liked. But little Peter II didn't last long. Only three years after he became emperor in 1730, at the age of 14, Peter contracted smallpox and died. Damn. After little Peter II died, Empress Anna Ivanovna took over Russia.

Now, a little knowledge nugget about her. In 1740, she had a palace built entirely of ice in St. Petersburg. Now, the palace's walls and furniture, it was all made of ice. It even had a cannon that could fire ice balls. And the cannon, you know, was just firing ice balls at everybody. So she just let it go? What do you mean let it go? Oh, fucking A. Fucking A. Now, why did Empress Anna have this built?

It was a prank. Empress Anna wanted to prank her court jester, so she had that ice palace built and then forced her court jester to marry an elderly woman inside of it and then made the couple sleep there naked. It's just a prank, bro. I'd be so pissed. But you know what? She got hers because that same year of 1740, Empress Anna would develop an ulcer on her kidneys and began having bouts of or attacks of gout.

And her health quickly began to fail. And in October of 1740, at the age of 47, she would pass away from a kidney stone. That must have been a big ass fucking kidney stone. I've never had them. I don't plan to ever have one, but I hear they're very painful. But I didn't know they could kill you. I didn't know they could kill you. I know my dad had them and he hated those things. Yeah. On the pain scale, they're up there with childbirth and all that, supposedly.

Oh, I don't know. You might get some. Nothing beats childbirth. Well, I'm just saying they're up there with it, not saying they're equal to it. Yeah. I cannot birth children out of my penis. It's big enough to do it, but I can't do it. So. So you say. Anyway. All right. So let's continue on. So after Empress Anna passed away is when things got a little weird for Russia. Their next ruler became Ivan and he was only two months old. A baby became the ruler of Russia. Not a good look.

If you're an invading country, you invade now. You think they go to put a crown on his head and his head just goes like right into it. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

But yeah, his little bitch ass didn't last long because a little more than a year later in 1741, his cousin Elizabeth pulled a bitch ass move. And I said bitch a lot. Yeah. A lot of bitches in this. But his cousin Elizabeth did pull a bitch move. She seized the throne from her baby cousin Ivan and had Ivan and his parents imprisoned far away from the capital where they spent the rest of their lives in captivity. Ivan,

was a prisoner for more than 20 years, meaning that at the age of one, I think it was like 15 months actually, but whatever. I'm not going to do the fucking month stuff. Almost 19 years he's been in prison. He was one year old when he went to prison and he spent all of his life in prison. And then he,

eventually was killed by some guards when some army officers that didn't let Ivan know this, they came in to try to free him, ended up getting into a scuffle. Ivan was killed. We attempted to free you. Oh, shit, you're dead. Fuck. Sorry, dog. It reminded me of the story of the man in the iron mask. At first, when I read that part, I was like, is that the same guy? Then I was like, oh, the man in the iron mask is French. Totally different countries.

Now, Elizabeth ended up ruling for quite a while. And then in 1761, she suffered a stroke and passed away in 1762. Following that, Peter III became the new emperor of Russia. And guess what?

His reign did not last long either. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. What is Dax? Are you tracking all our cars on Carvana value tracker on all our devices? Yes, Kristen. Yes, I am. Well, I've been looking for my phone for indexes domain. We see all. So we always know what our cars are worth. All of them. All of them.

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All right. Welcome back. Nope. His reign only lasted 186 days after becoming the head in charge. He was... I didn't say the word. I didn't say it. I just want everyone to know if Dan bleeped it, I didn't say the word. So he was overthrown in a coup that was orchestrated by his own wife, Catherine. Damn. The betrayal. 186 days. And your wife...

backstabs you betrayal puts together a little plan and then overthrows you and she becomes a queen and guess what peter ends up dying shortly after that no one really knows why it's all a mystery so catherine goes in front of the freaking public because they're all wondering why their king died and you know what she says her bitch ass says peter the third died due to hemorrhoids

It's like, what the fuck? I'd be pissed. I'd haunt her ass so hard. I'm going to have to search that up. Can you die from hemorrhoids? Can you? Hemorrhoids are painful, but not deadly. Well, back then, I bet you could have back then. I mean, you see this large bump in his anus. It killed him. Yeah. So, I mean, they don't have like modern medicine back then. You know, they were doing bloodletting and stuff like that. I mean, they could have done that to the hemorrhoid.

And it got gangrene and then killed him. True. Come here and let me slice your fucking asshole open and let the blood out. Just bend over the table here. Don't worry. You feel a little prick. Yeah. Now, even though Catherine the second, you know, did what she did, she betrayed her husband, took over. You know, she did do a lot of things for Russia.

For example, she expanded Russia's borders, gobbling up Crimea, parts of Poland and chunks of the Ottoman Empire. Catherine also promoted education and even drafted a pretty much legal code that was never implemented, though.

But I don't want you to be fooled. Catherine was no saint. She crushed peasant revolts like the Pugachov Rebellion in 1773 to 1775. And she tightened up serfdom. We got to keep the poor class working so us elitists can continue to thrive. Keep the poor poor. Yeah.

Speaking of Pugachev, that rebellion he led was wild and consisted of a group of Cossacks that were led by a man named Emilian Pugachev. And by the way, Cossacks were a multi-ethnic group of warriors and nomads.

The term Cossack comes from a Turkish word meaning free man, unlike the serfs. Anyway, so a Cossack, a.k.a. a warrior named Emilian Pugachev, he claimed to be Peter III, Catherine's dead husband who died of hemorrhoids. He claimed to be that. Look, I have hemorrhoids too. Pugachev rallied thousands of serfs,

Cossacks and indigenous peoples together just rallied them together. They were so they were a fucking goon squad. They went around just burning estates of Lords. They killed landlords and they nearly toppled the entire government. I mean, they were like gang. They were on some gang shit. It was tight. However, though they did lose Pugachov was captured, executed, and his rebellion became a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of challenging the system.

Yep. And by the end of the 18th century, Russia was sort of a paradox. On one hand, it was a European power that had a growing empire. And then on the other hand, its society was made up mostly of people living in poverty, the serfs. The gap between the elite and the masses were, it was staggering.

Nobles and lords lived in palaces. They wore those French fashion clothes that showed their nipples and they threw lavish balls where they all had orgies and ate exotic fruits and stuck jelly beans up their ass. The serfs, on the other hand, which was 90% of the population at the time, they were barely scraping by and they were doing all the work for their lords.

Now, it would be these struggles right here that would play a pivotal role in individuals seeking an escape into something different during that time period. And that is where today's cult comes into the conversation. And as crazy as it is, it's how it grew so quickly. And for us to talk about this cult, we need to first discuss its founder.

Kondraty Silivanov. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the founder. And that's who we're going to talk about. All right. So let's talk about Kondraty Silivanov. The man, the myth, the very controversial cult leader. His story is wild, dark and really fascinating. So buckle up. It's going to be a fun ride. And it's going to get weird. All right.

So everything we talked about earlier with serfdom and Russia in the 18th century, I want you to imagine that. Imagine all of that happening while we're going over this, okay? It was during this period, around 1730, that Kondraty was born into a peasant family.

Now, his village was pretty much a kind of a place where survival meant backbreaking labor and towing the line of the Russian Orthodox Church. So like everywhere in Russia, all the villages were like that. Not much is known about Conjurati's childhood, but there's one thing that we know for sure. He was a serf. He grew up poor, uneducated and deeply aware of the inequality around him.

By his teens, though, he would get married, which was standard for peasants at that time. However, his life would take a sharp turn when he encountered the Clisty. Now, the Clisty was a radical sect, a.k.a. cult. And I know some people can be like, cults and sects are different things. I don't give a shit. Cults and sects, okay, yeah, they are a little bit different. But when we say sects and cults, we're just going to say cults, okay?

I mean, you could just call it a religion. Yeah. Okay. So the Klitsky or how does it have the fuck? The Klitsy. Klitsy? The Klitsy. They didn't just sing hymns like a normal church song.

They participated in rituals where they danced in circles until they collapsed. They whipped themselves and they would go into trances where they were able to prophesize certain events. They'd be like, yes, I can see it. Kondrati is coming to join our religion. Whip me harder. Ah, yes. And then they also believe that they could communicate directly with God.

Of course. Now, another thing that's really important is that they rejected the church's authority, like the main church back then. They rejected their authority. They're like, we're not following your rules. We got our own fucking rules over here, bitch. That back then was super illegal, like extremely illegal. Your ass would get killed for that. But they still believed in like the same religion. Just they took it.

Their own twist. With their own twist, yeah. Yeah, but that twist was like blasphemy. Like, ugh, oh yeah, harder. I see it now. Yeah. Ugh. Oh, I prophesied you would whip me harder. However, though, Kondrati joined them anyway, and he thrived in this group. Kondrati became what a Kormschik, a.k.a. spiritual leader in this cult, and started preaching his own twist on their beliefs. But he didn't stop there, though. No. No.

Around 1770, Contradi claimed he had a vision and that he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. So he was doing his trance and he said, oh, let me order. I feel it. He did say that. And he's like, wait,

I am Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And they just like start warping him again. I mean, he really believed that. He claimed Peter III, the one who died of hemorrhoids, who reigned for 180 something days, who had been, you know, murdered in that coup by his wife, was also Jesus Christ reincarnated. And that he, Conjurati, was his spiritual successor.

Now, Conradti made this claim to other members in the Calisti cult, and they were like, whoa, whoa, you're taking it too far, buddy. Then the leader found out, kicked his ass out of the cult. You know, it's crazy when that cult is like, whoa, whoa, you're taking shit a little too far, man. I mean, the Calisti cult, their other name or their full name is like the Calisti death cult. They were fucking crazy.

Yeah, but Kondraty didn't care, though. He went and founded his own sect named Skopje. And guess what Skopje means in Russian? It translates to castrated. Yeah. So in Kondraty's new cult, he preached that removing sexual organs was the only way to purge original sin and achieve salvation.

which he allegedly castrated himself first to lead by example. But that was allegedly he claimed he did. But there would been reports that he during his members sometimes reported who left it said that he would like run around and be like, hey, look at my penis. And it wasn't cut off. And they'd be like, oh, yeah, he had the lesser seal.

No, he had everything. Oh, supposedly. I mean, there's conflicting reports that he's run around to showing people his penis, but then would claim that he castrated himself first after he got that, you know, vision and message. And he wanted to lead by example, but he still had a dick and balls. So whatever. Now, the beliefs of this cult, they go a bit deeper than just saying castrate yourself and you achieve salvation.

Kondrati believed that humans had to be perfect and for them to do that, they had to eradicate original sin. The original sin Kondrati believed had come into the world by Adam and Eve, by them, you know, first consummating. Yeah. Coitus. Ah, they were coitus. Coitus. So Kondrati also believed that the human genitals were the true mark of Cain and that the true message of Jesus Christ included the practice of castration.

and that Jesus himself had been castrated, as well as his apostles and almost all of the early Christian saints. So needless to say, Condrati's cult believed that the removal of sexual organs restored human beings to a pristine state before the original sin, a.k.a. Adam and Eve fucking, and this allowed human beings to go to heaven. Well, damn. Yeah, and it just gets weirder.

Now, in this cult, there were two kinds of castration. You have the lesser seal and the greater seal. In men, the lesser seal meant the removal of just the testicles. Yeah. So if you were a male, you had two choices. Lesser seal, greater seal. Lesser seal meant you just get your nuts cut off.

The greater seal meant the removal of the penis and testicles or just your penis. Regardless, if you picked greater seal, you were losing your dick. It was getting chopped off. You had the option to keep your testicles or not. And a little knowledge nugget, but for men who got the greater seal surgery, aka your dick cut off,

they were given a cow horn to urinate in because after your penis was cut off, you had like a little bitty nub and they didn't want the urine to just splash everywhere. So they would put the cow horn on it. And then when you would pee, it would go down the horn and exit at the end of it. You know, they used to put a nail inside your wreath, their urethra to stop the pee from coming out. God damn. That and after they did cut it off. So the like the urethra would it like

I guess heel closed. They had to have something in it to stop it from closing. So they chose a nail? They chose a nail. It was fucking crazy anyways for cutting it off, but damn. Yeah. So if they had to pee, they had to bloop, little oil pan. Yeah. So weird. Now women, they didn't have a choice of a lesser or greater seal. No. For women, you had your nipples and your entire breast removed. Also, you had your lips removed.

And not the ones up here by the mouth. You had those, you know, you had your, uh, lower, lower region lips, uh, and clitoris removed. Yeah. Which, I mean, I don't know how they found the clitoris. It's always lost. So all of these castrations were originally performed with a red hot iron. And during this, like it was like a ceremony, uh,

Um, the ceremony was called the fiery baptism. However, the cult, uh, transitioned into using knives or razors and would only use that red hot iron to scald the area to stop the blood flow. So at the beginning, uh, for a short period, they would use the red hot iron for everything. But then eventually they just started using knives and razors and then just scalded it afterwards.

Just think, you have like two guys, they're like, I want to become part of the Scopsy. Like, all right, you have to, you know, get the lesser seal or the greater seal. It gets worse. And then the first guy goes, and the second guy's like sitting there waiting, and he just sees this hot iron fire poker and just starts seeing what they're doing, and he's just like... It gets worse, because sometimes they don't even use any of that. Oof. Well...

The majority of these operations were performed by elders of the cult, and during it, the phrase, Christ is risen, was repeatedly said. Imagine getting you fucking castrated to keep saying that. You're like, shut the fuck up! In a random fact, the testicles of the man could either be cut off with a knife or twisted and then yanked off with the hands of the elders. Oh my goodness. Yeah. They had a choice if you chose to get your testicles yanked off. So the lesser seal, testicles...

Or greater seal testicles and penis. Regardless, if you chose to have your testicles removed, you could have it removed with a knife or the elder could use their hands, twist it until they were like, they said something, but twist it for a certain period and then yank them. So pretty much they would cut the scrotum open, grab the testes and then start twisting. No, you don't know.

They would twist them like that and then yank them off. Do you know that you could do it in stages if you wanted to? Really? So I read up that a lot of them decided to do the stage part where they'll get the lesser seal first. They have their testicles removed first.

And then later on, they convert to the, you know, it sounds like it sounds like, OK, OK, I'll get into the religion. I'm just going to do the lesser seal. I promise I'll do the greater seal later on. It's like I won't have any kids. Jesus Christ, man. That's crazy. Yeah, that's. All right. So, yeah, that's what you had to look forward to when joining this cult. And you would think that it wouldn't have that many followers, you know, but that's not the case.

Kondraty began hustling. He started traveling around to the central areas in Russia, gathering followers. Majority of them were poor peasants, merchants, and even sometimes he ended up having low level nobles join his cult. Yeah. But how, though? Why did they join?

Well, charisma, desperation, or maybe the promise of a pure life. He stated that castration was liberation from worldly sin, and his followers began to call him God of Gods and Tsar of Tsars. Believe it or not, despite being illegal, the cult of Skopsky grew fast. It grew so much that the authorities began to notice.

In 1775, Catherine the Great had Kondraty arrested and then exiled him to Siberia. That's where everybody fucking goes. But Kondraty, he wasn't done. He didn't let that deter him. In 1796, Paul I, who had a soft spot for mystics, he ended up pardoning Kondraty.

Kondrati waltzed back to St. Petersburg, set up a shop near the Winter Palace and started preaching to the nobles. Winter Palace is at the Ice Palace. Yeah. I think it still was up. And you know what? For a hot minute, Kondrati was tolerated and even respected. Pretty crazy, huh? That's pretty crazy. But then reality hit. Alexander I took over in 1801 and Kondrati's luck ran out.

The Skopsky were seen as a threat to social order. And then in 1820, Kondraty, now in his 80s, was arrested again and thrown into a monastery prison. Kondraty would die there in 1832. But get this, after his death, even after his death, his followers would smuggle letters out.

Well, first they were smuggling letters out from him, actual letters. And then after he died, they continued to like bring letters out saying they're from him claiming that he had descended to heaven and he's delivering letters down below and that he would return. And you would think with his death, that would be the end of this cult. Nope. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break. This is our last one. So don't go nowhere. Well,

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All right, welcome back. The cult continued and ended up going underground, secret rituals, coded messages, and get this, they even became rich. By the mid-1800s, they dominated trade, banking, textiles, and kept on castrating new members. But wealth drew attention. It did. In 1872, a massive trial was held, and it exposed hundreds of the cult's members.

These members, guess where they were exiled to? Oh, gosh. Siberia. And their assets were seized. However, even with dwindling numbers, the cult continued on. Now we fast forward to the 20th century. A political party rolled into Russia. Suddenly, all religious groups were on the chopping block. The Skopsky, you know, with their secretive anti-Soviet vibes, they were squashed.

By the 1930s, the Soviets had dismantled their communes, arrested leaders, and erased them from the public memory. So I know you're probably wondering, are any members of this cult still around today? Officially, no. The Soviets did a pretty thorough job in getting rid of them. However, there are rumors that in remote villages...

There are some of these members that castrate themselves and still follow the teachings of Kondrati, but none have come forward. To each their own, I guess. Yeah. And that right there is the story of the Scopsy, a.k.a. the castration cult. But just like every week, our episode doesn't stop here because we ended up diving deep, going on a mission, castrating ourselves to find out

Are there any other strange facts and findings behind this cult? And boy, oh boy, did we find some weird stuff. That we did. Our first strange fact and finding is about the rivalry between the Skopsti and the Clisti death cult. Since Kondrati was an ex-member of the Clisti cult, his new cult, the Skopsti, was quickly attracting members with his teachings and

Which the Clitsky did not take kindly to this since it was now a rival cult taking what could be their members. Yeah, the Clitsky, just to give a little refresher, the Clitsky cult was the one that Kondraty originally joined. The ones that were like fucking whipping themselves and going into trances and shit. And then Kondraty, whenever he was like going into a trance, oh, I'm Jesus Christ. They're like, whoa, that's too much. Get the fuck out. So then Kondraty got out and created his own cult, the Scopsies.

Yep. So you know what the Caliste decided? Know what? We're going to murder Conjurati and its followers before their numbers could grow too much. But it failed. So the death cult got afraid of Conjurati's new cult and were like, we're going to murder you? That's right. Damn. They wanted to stop them before they grew too much and got too big because...

Their following was growing at a rapid pace. Yep. And since the assassination attempt failed, they decided, as in the...

Klitsky? Klitsky. Klitsky or whatever the other fucking cult, the first cult we'll call them. They decided to do the next big thing or the next best thing. And it was a big thing. They reported him, Kondraty, to the Russian state. Now, the Russian state started investigating him. And of course, they learned that Kondraty had created a system of commandments that prescribed radical sexual abstinence.

Castration, denial of marriage, frequent fasting, rejection of meat consumption and wearing white garments, especially in the crotch area, because it kind of symbolized their purity, which, by the way, they were also called the white doves, the white doves flyer than a dove. It's not even a dove. I think the white horses as well, from what I read in one book and the castrati.

Yeah. So they had different names. No Dicks was also another one. I'm just kidding. No balls. No balls. No balls. Your cult sucks. You guys don't have any balls. You won't do it. You got no balls. But yeah, that wasn't the worrisome part, though. You know, not having any balls. It was the fact that the Skotsky believed that when their ranks reached 144,000, God would issue his judgment.

Then Kondraty would ride the heavenly clouds to Moscow, call for all the cult members, you know, with the Tsar's bell ringing, go to St. Petersburg to hold justice over the living and the dead. Also, all the monarchs would throw their crowns to his feet and all peoples would accept his teachings. So, of course, that caused the Russia state to be worried about him coming and trying, you know, to take over.

So that's when they got involved. Yep. Crazy, right? Mm-hmm. So weird. And it just gets even weirder. Tell us about their living relics, Dan. Oh, our next strange fact I'm finding is called living relics. And some of the Scopese, you know, cults preserve the castrated body parts of their members as sacred relics.

These were sometimes buried in secret locations or kept in hidden shrines, treated as holy objects that symbolized their sacrifice and devotion. I wonder if they like created the stuffing out of it and then like hung it over their fireplace. Well, they didn't have fireplaces, but if they did, I'd like to imagine like, oh, I'm a collector of the Scopese cults, severed penises. Look at all of my stuffed penises that I have. I don't know why I just imagine that.

I've got some pussy lips over here too. Look at these. I got some pussy lips over here as well. See like a guy got like a, looks like a egg carton hanging above his fireplace and each one has like a testicle. Yeah. That's like some frigging Albert Fish or who's that other guy? That other serial killer? Buffalo Bob or...

Is that one? I don't know. There's a serial killer who had like a nipple belt. Puts the lotion on the skin. I'm not an expert on serial killers, so don't come at me. We did that episode way back. The one about the nipple belt. Mm hmm. We did that early on. That first like three months of the podcast in 2019 when I was recording in my small closet. Yeah. Damn. All right. That's weird. They kept the castrated parts of themselves. Hey, honey, you remember our friend Charlie? Yeah.

Yeah. You know, the one that decided to join that, uh, cult. Look what he gave me. His balls. All right. My gosh. So let's talk about our next strange fact and finding, which is called holy wounds. Now the scopsy viewed their self-inflicted wounds, AKA, you know, the, the removed nipples, the, uh, removed genitals, uh,

So you remember that iron I told you about, that hot iron? Yeah, fiery baptism. It had a symbol on it. And whenever they would get castrated or, you know, have whatever moved, they would have that hot iron scald them. And it put the symbol on them. And they viewed that symbol, which of course created a scar, as sort of like holy wounds akin to the stigmata of Christ. Right.

They believed that these wounds brought them closer to God and demonstrated their rejection of worldly pleasures. Pretty weird. So our next strange fact I'm finding is called secret language. Skopsky developed a coded language and symbols to communicate with each other, especially during periods of intense persecution.

This allowed them to maintain their community and rituals in secret, even when under surveillance by the authorities. Smart. Smart. Stupid to cut off private parts. Smart to create a secret language. I wonder what kind of secret language they had. I don't know. Anyway, so let's talk about our next strange fact and finding, which is about the practice of castration for musical purposes. So back in the day,

There was some dude in a church. Okay. I'm talking way back in the day. He was sitting in a church looking over St. Paul's writings. He was reading it. This dude was reading it and he was like, I'm going to interpret the writings of St. Paul as him saying women need to be silent in church. And due to this interpretation, women were banned from singing in church choirs. Take that. No more singing. Can't have no women singing. God don't like that.

So dumb. I wonder how many people would just like stare at him like, okay. Like, okay. Okay, cool, dude. Now the church choirs had to find individuals with high-pitched voices to make up for all the women that weren't allowed to sing anymore or even talk in church.

So they had boys before they had puberty between the ages of seven and 12, taking over that role in the choir. And this wasn't just like one church. This was all of the churches that implemented this. And starting in the 16th century, primarily in Italy, these churches decided, hey, we need more high pitched voices in our choir. Too many of these boys are hitting puberty. And then we have to kick them out of the choir because their voices are too deep. We need more.

you know, some high pitched voices and we can't allow the women to sing. St. Paul said, no women can be singing up in this bitch. Sorry, hose. Sit your ass down respectfully. So that's what he said. So they had to fix this issue and to fix it. Boys in the choir that were singing before they hit puberty, they were typically castrated and this prevented their voices from deepening and feminize them. Anyway. Yeah. They just didn't give him any testosterone. Hmm.

Fave M's. Hey, man, you'd like to see her. You want to come sing in the church choir? You have a lovely voice, but cut off his balls, but I can make it better. Yeah, I could take you to the next level. But yeah, this was called the castrati and was seen as an accepted resolution to the church's problem. Now, the surgery itself, it was often performed by barber surgeons and

And the exact methods were kept secret by the church, which I had to say, barber surgeons. Yep. And by the 17th and 18th centuries, castratos became stars of the opera stage. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but we're just going to go with it. Okay. I mean, that's what it looks like. Castratos. Yeah. Their unique voices were highly prized for their ability to perform emotionally powerful roles that are high pitched.

Due to this, many families, particularly poor ones, saw castration as a way to secure a better future for their sons. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, musical tastes began to shift, which led to a decline in demand for castratis or castratos. The practice of castration became increasingly controversial, and by the 19th century it was widely condemned as inhumane.

The last known castrato was Alessandro Morishi, died in 1922. Yep. Damn. I think we might have covered that a while back because I remember talking about that. Alessandro? At least Alessandro, yeah. But I think it was during maybe our episode over church sexual abuse scandal. I want to say that would be the only one you would probably bring that up in. Yeah.

But very interesting. Now, they only wanted boys from seven to 12. And if their voice got deep, they didn't want them no more. Put a girl on. I bet you can't be a girl. I bet you I can. Put a boy on. All right, Dan. So do you want to start off this next one? Of course. So our last strange fact I'm finding is about another cult that we found, which was the cult of Kubeli. Or if you see it, you're probably going to say it Saibeli or Saibel. Saibel.

It goes by many names, but like Kubeli, Kubeli, wait, Kubeli, Kubeli. It's like the Greek form of it. The CY makes like a ku sound or something like that with a K. Okay. But yeah, we're just going to go with Cybele. I like that. So first off, Cybele or the Magna Mater, great mother, was this ancient goddess from Turkey and was worshipped way before Rome was a thing actually. But

We're going to be talking in the form of it, of her being in Rome. She was the goddess of nature, fertility and chaos and like wild animals. Some would describe her like the earth mother who meets unhinged rockstar style. So she was like calm, but let's party. That makes no sense. It doesn't. Okay. Well, Hey,

So Rome apparently liked her and they officially adopted her as their goddess during the Punic Wars. They were losing the siege of Carthage and were like, hey, we need some help from another god or goddess to help us win. So bring your ass over here, bitch. Respectfully. And they ended up choosing this goddess. And during that time of desperation,

It worked. Rome, you know, adopting the goddess Sibyl, which was a normal thing for Romans to do. They, in time of need or trouble or something like that, they're like, hey, we're going to adopt another god or something to help us, you know, get us power to move forward or something like that. So they adopted different gods and goddesses from, you know, other places, other countries and shit. And the only thing, though, is that they adopted Sibyl and they realized like what she was, you know, goddess of.

But they realized that she was a little bit more exotic than they expected her like the beliefs for, you know, even though Romans always had like all these orgies and stuff. She was like next level shit, supposedly. But Rome stuck with her, though, because, you know, the religion of Sabelle flourished and it helped unite the people during the war. Now, the priests, the galley were very intense in worshiping this goddess, which weirded out the Roman Senate and its people.

They were like, look, keep your weird shit over there. Don't bring that over here. But then other people were kind of curious. They were like, hey, you know, how bad can it be? Well, it was pretty bad. The priest had a certain ritual they would do in public called the act or the sacred frenzy. Not really a name, but description. Yeah, they never really came up with a name. They're just like, oh, they're in the act or sacred frenzy going on. Watch out.

So let me paint this weird and shocking scene for you. You're in Rome. It's during the Sibela's Wild Festival called the Dia Sanguinis, which means the Day of Blood. And as you're walking, you're making your way through Rome. You can hear the sounds of drums, flutes, you know, music going on, crowd cheering. You know, you follow the sound and you arrive at the center of the area and you see a bunch of people dancing. They're like, hell yeah, it's a party.

And then out of nowhere, you see this man who was just dancing crazily

dropped to the ground. Oh, is he okay? Let me go check. Are you okay? Yeah, you'd think that he passed out or something, but no. He's in a trance-like state. Oh, I've seen this before. Yeah, and next thing you know, this man pulls out a flint knife. Oh, he's got a knife. Everybody watch out. But he didn't attack nobody. Oh, okay, never mind. He cuts off his bottoms, and all you see is his twigs and berries and some foliage. He's got his dick out, everybody. He's flashing people. Watch out! So everyone's like, what in the hell is this man doing?

Everyone's dancing, enjoying themselves, and here this guy is on the ground flashing everyone for fun. Oh. Well, not really for fun. What he truly was doing was starting the ritual, you know, the act or the sacred frenzy of taking that flint knife, grabbing his testes. Wait, what? Hold on.

Wait, what? Somebody stop him. He's there and he's taking that flint knife and he's cutting his own testes off. He's castrating himself. He's castrating himself in the middle of this, you know, party of this festival. And as he's doing this, he's yelling, screaming, Sabelle, Sabelle. Do you really think this goddess wants you to cut off your own testicles? What the fuck, dude? Hey.

That was their belief, I guess. That was their belief. And I'll go into that a little bit here in a second. But once he was done removing his testicles, guess what he did? He cut off his penis. I mean, that comes later. Oh, God. But after he removed his testicles,

No way. Did he really? They would throw their testicles after they cut them off into the dancing crowd. He would, after doing that, of course, you know, he just cut his testes off and all that and the other stuff. He would collapse to the ground, start bleeding on the ground. He wouldn't die. He would wake up later on, you know, after passing out.

put on some new clothes like a flowy robe or women's clothing. Now, who the hell was this man? That would be one of the priests, the galley, the priest of Sabelle. This is one of the things that they had to do to be a priest. The priest would do this to supposedly reenact the myth of Attis, Sabelle's lover. According to legend, Attis went mad with devotion, castrated himself under a pine tree, and died.

Then Sabelle would find out, find them, and bring them back to life. So the galley would mimic his sacrifice to die to their old selves and be reborn as her eternal servants. This would be their ultimate act of devotion to her, body and soul. But it doesn't stop there. Oh boy. The priest would then dig a trench deep enough for him to lay in it and have a metal grate placed over him. Now you're wondering what the hell is about to happen. Well, other priests, other galleys,

would bring in a bull. They would have the bull stand over the grate on top of the other galley lane under there and they would sacrifice the bull. Well, I was thinking they were going to get the bull to like piss on him or something. Honestly, I think this is worse. Oh God. Okay, so they sacrifice the bull. So they sacrifice the bull and since it's a metal grate underneath of it, all the blood's coming down. All the blood's going down and not just that,

They pretty much gut the bull. So the guts. So the guts and everything and the blood all go down onto the galley. Yep. So once all the entrails and the blood has been drained onto him, they would cut the testicles off the bull. And guess what they did with those? Cook them. For. I don't know. I don't know what they really did. Oh, OK. I think they did throw them, though. These galleys were now baptized by blood. And to finish the ritual off, they would get out from under that grate after they moved the bull and.

all that, they would then drink milk from an animal. All of it to be represented as being reborn. The whole blood and the guts was like them being birthed. And then drinking milk was like... Suckling the teeth of thy mother. Exactly. Wow. And I'm like, the Romans and probably you, the listener, were like, damn, this is horrifying, but kind of intriguing. It is intriguing. And that's what all the Romans thought. They're like, holy shit, what are they doing?

Hey, that looks pretty cool. It's like a car crash. That is exactly what it is. Yeah. But there was a kicker to this, though. No Roman person could join this cult. Only foreigners could. So pretty much the Romans had this as a spectacle for them. Oh, okay. That makes sense. So they're just like, look at these freaks, these foreigner freaks. Yep. Wow. Now, just to finish this off, to throw this in before theories.

I kept reading more about this and I found out something. Greek goddesses and gods and all that, they're freaks, obviously. All the babies and demigods they have. Well, I found out Sabelle wasn't just Addis' lover, but also his mother. That's fucked up. Yep. Addis would fall in love with a mortal woman, though, and that would actually piss off Sabelle and she would drive him mad to the point that Addis would then castrate himself and die. And that's why she brought him back to life. It's like, you're not getting away from me that easily.

But yeah, I found that cult, you know, while we're reading, uh,

about the skopsky skopsky that's very interesting imagine not knowing anything about the romans imagine not knowing anything about this cult and being a foreigner yourself you go there during this and you come across to great and these people like sacrificing first of all you go to this festival you're like fuck yeah dude where's the ecstasy at i'm about to roll where's the molly at dog and they're he's like wait is that a vici

I took a pill and a pizza. You're like, fuck yeah, I love this song. And all of a sudden you see this dude just jump out in the crowd, lay on the ground and pull out a knife, cut his shorts off and cut his testicles off. You're like, whoa. Here's like an image that someone made of it, kind of, of the bull sacrifice and the guy being underneath of it. Supposed to be representing, but the way it's described is totally different. Yeah. But here's the image. It's, you know,

showing them sacrificing the bull and there's a guy underneath so like yes drop it on me and there's you see the pervert over there just like yeah that's cool he's like looking in on it you see this stuff yeah you you take those intestines on you buddy nasty stuff yeah yeah i found that uh strange fact and i thought i should share it with you guys well thank you for that i thought it was pretty funny that uh it's kind of hard like horrifying that he castrated himself but

He would launch his own testicles into the crowd. Don't keep them nothing. Literally launch them into the crowd. Yeah. Imagine getting hit in the face with one of those. Like, what the fuck was that? You look down and see a testicle. Oh, shit. Anyway. What do they call them? Oh, all right. So let's transition into our theory section where we talk about the theories revolving scopsy and the, you know, this castration cult.

All right, so the first theory we got is called esoteric knowledge and hidden teachings. And this theory states that the Scopsey had deeper hidden teachings that only the most devoted members knew about. The...

higher or greater. What is it? Greater, greater, greater seals. One of my, their wiener cut off only they knew about it. Uh, maybe there were secret interpretations of the Bible or maybe they had like special rituals that outsiders never got to see since they did have that secret language and they were underground for a very long time and they did have a massive following. At one point they had over a hundred thousand members and,

So, yeah, it wasn't like they were small time. They were big time doing it. I think that's why they got squashed for the fact that they were close to 144,000. Yeah. And with this belief, this theory, some state that what we talked about with their beliefs was just a tip of the iceberg, was just a little bit that there was an entire whole layer of mystical knowledge that was never revealed that they had access to. And which is why, again,

these individuals were so willing to join and castrate themselves because they were able to see the inner workings of this cult. And it is why that this cult was pretty much, or why they lasted so long and then why they were squashed and almost erased from history. I mean, yeah, they even had like what low level nobles joining them as such. Yeah. So it's like, there's some kind of knowledge that's hidden and I'm guessing the Clistie,

cult they probably knew about part of it one reason why they want to get rid of them like oh shit they know there's rumors that Rasputin was a part of that oh yeah part of the clistie yeah like they weren't sure that if he was actually a part of it or he just got introduced to him but he was probably part of it yeah but for himself there was no official documents found that proved that but yeah anyways why don't you tell us about our next theory Dan alright so our next theory is called the religious purity theory

Basically, this Scopsey took certain Bible verses very literally, especially the one about some making themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. And I think it was, what's his name? Conjati? Conjati? Mm-hmm. Like, one of the things he definitely believed in, like, one of the verses was, like, hand for a hand or something like that. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Yeah. So pretty much temptation for temptation. Chop it off, no more temptation type thing. So he really took a lot of the Bible verses very literally and literally

That's why they believe cutting off sexual temptation was the way to achieve spiritual purity. To them, castration and mastectomy weren't acts of suffering, but a way to get closer to God by removing sinful desires. Which, I mean, purity and not to really joke about it, but people, you know, men joke about post-nut clarity. It's true. I mean, when you don't have them, is it just pure clarity? Yeah. I don't know. All right. So I can see that theory, you know.

Which I think that is pretty much what they did. They took the verses literally. I think so too. Yeah. But we got a couple more theories we're going to go over. For example, this next one is called socioeconomic rebellion theory. Now this theory states that...

I mean, Scopsey was looked at more than just a religious movement, but it was also sort of like a response to the tough conditions in Russia at the time during the 18th century. I mean, we went over everything about that and there was a purpose why we did it so that you knew what the average person was going through.

And you can see why they wanted to get away from that. So I hope you're still watching. Yeah, their life sucked. Most of the followers of Scopsy were poor peasants or lower class people. And by them rejecting sex or, you know, reproduction, they were kind of rejecting the whole system that depended on them. Because if you were a serf, right, it was generational. You couldn't escape it for a period you could.

But then the rulers kept implementing it to where you couldn't. So if you were born into it, that meant your kids were and you were generally generationally supporting that system. And this theory states that, you know, with these people joining it, they were kind of saying, you know, we're not going to play your game anymore. We

we fucking hate this country and we're going to, uh, you know, join Scopsy and do things our way, straight ourselves and do things our way. Yeah. So it was more so of like a rebellion rather than a belief. You know what sucks though for the guys, let's say that they go through with this, they get the greater seal, get everything cut off and pretty much burned. And then a woman does the same thing. But,

The men loses their whole sexual reproduction. The women don't. So some of the women actually ended up leaving the scopsy and still actually having, you know, normal family and life afterwards. Yep. But the men couldn't. And I mean, whose fault was that? The men. Yeah. Everyone makes choices in the life. You have to live with those choices. Ours hangs out. All right. So tell us about this next theory, Dan. All right. So our next theory is called the apocalyptic theory.

So Scots weren't just about self-denial. They also had some pretty extreme end of the world beliefs. They saw themselves as the chosen few who would be saved when everything went down. Some even believe that their leader, Kondrati, was some kind of figure who would lead them into a new spiritual era, aka Jesus Christ. Their self-mutilation was part of proving their devotion and readiness for this transformation, which I can't remember if reading all these different cults, they said like once Kondrati passed away, like he came back.

Only the pure people would be able to live on. 144,000. Yeah. So it'd be castrated to be able to survive. And Kondrati would lead the Kastratis, you could say. Yeah. Okay. So they had that belief. So, I mean, another Heaven's Gate thing. Yeah. So let's talk about our next theory, which is called psychological and pathological.

So some researchers think there might have been some serious psychological factors at play when it came to this cult. Maybe it was a mix of religious guilt, mass hysteria, and extreme fear of sin that pushed people into doing something so drastic like cutting your dick off or cutting your balls off or getting your buffalo lips trimmed.

You know, losing your breast assist. Yeah. But others suggest that the leaders at least might have had, you know, some psychopathic tendencies and manipulated followers into self-harm.

Because it wasn't just like, well, at the beginning it was Kondraty, but then he had these elders that worked with him. And the elders were the one who did the castration. And they also did recruitment as well with him. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't just in that general area that there were members. They had members like all over Russia. It spread like wildfire. It was crazy. I couldn't believe how quickly it spread. I honestly couldn't. Yeah, I think this like psychological theory falls underneath everything.

I mean, the socioeconomic rebellion theory, you know, because they kind of both play a role. I mean, you're a poor peasant going through some shit and you're pretty much a slave and you want to leave that system. The best way to leave is join a cult and get your freaking whatever cut off, you know, saying F you to the system. Let's bring it down. I mean, obviously this cult knew something because I mean, they didn't eat meat. So I guess they were all vegetarian. So they ate.

I guess they joined it knowing that they would at least be able to get food to eat, considering they were already poor. Maybe this was a guaranteed way to get food. Like, OK, I got to sacrifice this if I want to survive. I can live without my dick and balls. Yeah, not me. That was hard to say. Hey, so why don't you tell us about this next theory, Dan? All right. So the last theory that we have is called the secret society and political paranoia theory.

The Russian government saw the Skopje as more than just a weird religious group. They saw them as a dangerous secret society. Their secretive nature and unusual rituals made people paranoid, and rumors spread that they were up to something more sinister, maybe even planning to overthrow the state, which they did find out that that was part of it. And that's why the authorities cracked down so hard, exiling members to Siberia and trying to erase the movement. I mean, that's honestly not even a theory. That's a fact that they were trying to get rid of them because...

Once they hit 144,000 members, they were going to storm Moscow and take over. Yeah. Crowns would be placed at the feet. Make all the monarchs, all the kings and everything, give them the crowns and become peasants themselves. Yeah. They didn't want that. So pretty much there's really only three theories behind this. Yeah. The esoteric one, the belief that this cult had some hidden knowledge that was locked away. And that's why...

All the people ended up joining it. And due to their secret nature and their secret language, they were able to hide away this knowledge away from the public view. And they just gave you a little bit of, you know, what they initially did.

The other theory is that it was a socioeconomic rebellion. You know, it wasn't this esoteric belief, but more so the fact that the people living there in 18th century Russia were just fucking tired of the system. They were like, we don't want to give birth to children who are going to continue to suffer and support it. I don't want my child to suffer and be depressed like me. You know, I can't even watch Wheel of Fortune at night. I got to go over my Lord's house and freaking plow his yard. You know, we don't want that. So as a way of rebellion, they're like,

Oh, look at this guy, uh, Kondrati over here preaching his ways. And then you learn about castration and purity. And you're like, that sounds way better than what I'm going through. So there's that theory, the socioeconomic rebellion theory, the esoteric theory of hidden knowledge, and then, uh, pretty much just religious purity, religious purity. Some people just believed, Hey, maybe that is the way to get into heaven. And, uh,

They joined it. Population control. Oh, population control. Considering a lot of people weren't able to afford food. A lot of people were starving. Let's say if there were less mouths to feed, there would still be more food. Do you think maybe that's why you think Condrati was recruited to create this religion? And which is why he said, oh yeah, I am castrated. But he really wasn't. And the fact that they

They let him get away with this so long. And then he was exiled and he was brought back and pardoned. And then they found out. And nobles. He was able to preach to nobles about it until Alexander came along and was like, what the fuck are you doing? Get out of here. And the fact that he was able to, he came back after thinking he was going to overthrow him. Yeah. It's like. Just waltzed right up into St. Petersburg. It's like, what's up, bitches? I'm back. I don't know. I'm starting to think. Population control. Yeah. Because I think. So the other cult.

They were upset about it, but like they never went the extra mile for the castration. They just beat themselves. Then let's say the Russian, like the emperor or whatever, czar, which is like, we need less people. We need to figure a way to use them. They're not going to join the army. There's no war really going on right now. How do we get rid of people? Well, if they can't reproduce,

Don't have to worry about mouths to feed. They'll end up dying off. They're not eating meat. They're only surviving on vegetables, which I mean. So let's recruit this guy to create a cult or let's push his beliefs of a cult and allow him to do it as a way to population control. And Conradti joining the Calisti cult was just a way for him to get in, learn their ways and use it

To make his own. So the whole part of him getting kicked out was part of the plan. Yeah. Whoa. That would go way deep. Could you imagine that? It's literally, what, destroying from the inside? Yeah. But he probably stole members from the Callisti cult as well. And maybe the Callisti cult was actually the good ones. They beat themselves, but they were trying to stop, what, I don't know, population control? Maybe. I don't know. I'm not going to say that they are good guys, bad guys. I mean, they're people. But I...

I'm going to ask you, Dan, what do you think it is? Either it's the social, the socioeconomic rebellion or population control. Those are the ones I'm going with because I granted I would I could see people going the extra mile to do that because in Russia, when they were starving during the pressions and stuff, they were eating people. Yeah, they're eating everything. Maybe they were eating friggin genitalia here. Who knows? Let me see that dick. I want to eat it. Oh, that's a eggplant you're eating there. Mm hmm.

Well, that's what you're going with. The socioeconomic rebellion theory or the I'm more leaning towards the population control now. OK, just because it sounds very interesting in the fact that they let them go on for so long with this. And then it wasn't until another cult was like, hey, you know, you need to control them. They're going to try to take over and all that. I will send them to jail. So, yeah, that's OK. What do you think?

Well, I would like to believe the esoteric hidden knowledge theory. That's the funnest one. That's the one I find to be awesome. But if you want my true, honest opinion on what I believe it is, I'm going to have to go with the simplest answer. Be crazy. Not only crazy, but religion. I mean, you have everybody, 90% of the population living in misery. They're looking for an outlet.

I don't think it was a socioeconomic rebellion. I think that's too much of a smart thing. They were looking for hope, not hate, because they were hopeless at the time. So instead, you want something to look forward to, so you join this new hyped-up religion. You're offered salvation to castrate yourself. I just think it was people at the time being vulnerable, and Conjurati saw that, and he decided to take advantage of it and had people...

you know, join his cult and worship him. And a lot of people at that time were desperate for hope and he gave them that. And I think that's what really was the case. Did they have to give him their belongings? I can't remember. Now, I did read that some of these members in this cult

We're pretty wealthy. Dude, the entire, the entire, you were part of the member. You became wealthy. They got so much money after Kondrati passed away. When they ended up going underground with it, they, they went into the banking system. Some of the members, uh, they would have like little stalls and stuff and all that are like shops and they were making decent money. Yeah. So it's like, and like,

The most of them, like there was a lot of them that were women that were making a lot of money, not for anything. Selling that puss. Not for that, but it's the fact that they could blend in, especially when they had to go on the ground. The women can blend in because, you know, they're women like, okay, you know, flat chest, maybe that's it. You can't see anything else. So they were able to still blend into, you know, the public, the men though. Yeah. Yeah.

Let me see that dick. Just see if you remember. Anyways. All right. Well, with that being said, if you or a loved one have been a part of this cult or you have been castrated yourself, please send us an email. We would love to hear from you. But do you have anything else you would like to add to today's episode, Dan? Nope. I'm all culted out on this one. Yeah. It was fun, though, to read. Kind of weird, but fun. It was fun. I enjoy learning about history and weird cults.

And if anyone has any cult suggestions or history suggestions or anything like that, send us an email. Cause I mean, there was another cult I was going to do, but I wanted to wait on that one. Yeah. Um, but with that being said, I guess we're going to do just a little bit of free talk. I know we've been inconsistent with uploading.

We're in the process of transitioning into females. No, not females. Transitioning into a new... Oh, estrogen level's high. Estrogen level's so high. No, we're in the middle of transitioning to a new media company. And we just fulfilled our last contract with the other one. And we're kind of like in this weird transition period of like...

producing episodes, not producing episodes. So we're just waiting to be given the thumbs up with the new media contract and then we'll be consistent. We haven't forgot about you. And I've been depressed. Dan's been depressed. I had to come over here and beat the fuck out of him a couple of times. Busted my lip and everything. Yeah. No, that was the first time I ever like really lost my voice. And I just saw like, this is, this is a realization I had.

If my voice box didn't come back or like my voice didn't come back, I can't record. I was like, that's the end of the podcast for me right there. I just get you one of those things where you touch the thing. Hey, my name is Daniel. I've been a smoker for 23 years. My name's Cindy. Only reason like I, I got to that thought was because my dad did have throat cancer for a while and his voice, like it got really low and raspy. So he had to like hold his throat a little bit, clear his throat, try to talk. And I'm just like,

If it gets that bad, I can't do it. I was like, I'm gonna feel so bad. And like, that's what I went through for those two weeks of me not being able to talk. It was very depressing. But then my voice started coming back and I mean, still a little bit messed up, but it's there. So yeah, I was pretty depressed and I'm okay now. Somewhat.

Also, we're going to be doing another extra episode coming soon for the premium, you premium members. The extra episode is going to include the drawing for the pins, the collectible pins, not the pins you write with. It'll be that drawing. And then it will also be a food tasting. And then we're going to be on the streets of Austin, Texas in the wild. We're going to start doing more on the scene stuff. So.

Be prepared for that. That's coming all over you. All over you. And we will be doing the drawing. I have the list already made. Yeah. I sat there and collected all the emails. It took me quite a while. So we'll be doing all that. But with that being said, I want to thank you for joining us. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your love. Without you, we could not do this. And I will love you forever. And I'm proud of you. Much love. But with that being said,

Dan, would you like to roll us out? Sure will. It's okay to be out of this world with your thoughts. Because you are not alone. Boom. No testicles, no balls. ♪